Morse Code used to be used (and to some extent still is) during war time to communicate in the field, in the air and to report that the Titanic was sinking. It used to be a highly specialized technical skill that took lots of training. Now however you can let everyone know the Germans are [...]

(Video Link)
Pedro M. Cruz, a graduate student in information visualization and interaction design, created this time-elapsed representation of the rise and decline of the British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish overseas empires from 1800 to 2000. He writes:
The data refers to the evolution of the top 4 maritime empires of the XIX and XX centuries by [...]